Plymouth Bay Colony

Plymouth Colony
Colony of England
1620–1686 1689–1691
Seal of Plymouth Colony
Map of Plymouth Colony showing town locations
Capital		Plymouth
Languages		English
Religion		Puritan, Separatist
Government		Self-government
Legislature		Plymouth General Court
History
•	Established	1620
•	First Thanksgiving (1621)
•	Pequot War (1637)
•	King Philip's War	1675–1676
•	Part of the Dominion of New England	1686–1688
•	Disestablished	1691
Succeeded by Province of Massachusetts Bay
Today part of		Commonwealth of Massachusetts

Seal of Plymouth Colony

Plymouth Colony (sometimes New Plymouth) was an English colonial venture in North America from 1620 to 1691. The first settlement of the Plymouth Colony was at New Plymouth, a location previously surveyed and named by Captain John Smith. The settlement served as the capital of the colony, and is the modern town of Plymouth, Massachusetts. At its height, Plymouth Colony occupied most of the southeastern portion of the modern state of Massachusetts.

Plymouth Colony was founded by a group of Separatists initially known as the Brownist Emigration and Anglicans, who came to be known as the Pilgrims. It was one of the earliest successful colonies to be founded by the English in North America, along with Jamestown and other settlements in Virginia, and the first sizable permanent English settlement in the New England region. The colony was able to establish a treaty with Chief Massasoit which helped to ensure its success; in this, they were aided by Squanto, a Native American of the Patuxet people. It played a central role in King Philip's War (1675–1678), one of the earliest of the Indian Wars. Ultimately, the colony was merged with the Massachusetts Bay Colony and other territories in 1691 to form the Province of Massachusetts Bay.